ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES
Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program
 
 
 
Vol. 18, no. 04 GP 3.16/3-2:18/04       February 28, 1997
 
 
 
 
MICHAEL F. DIMARIO
PUBLIC PRINTER
 
PREPARED STATEMENT BEFORE THE 
SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ON
APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATES FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998
 
February 11, 1997
 

 
        GPO AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
 
        The information dissemination programs of GPO's Superintendent of
Documents include the distribution of publications to approximately 1,400
Federal depository libraries nationwide, cataloging and indexing,
distribution to recipients designated by law, and distribution to foreign
libraries designated by the Library of Congress which in turn agree to
send copies of their official publications to the Library.  These programs
are funded by annual appropriation.  The Superintendent of Documents also
operates a nationwide sales program funded entirely by sales revenues, and
distributes publications for Federal agencies which reimburse us for this
service.  Altogether, we distribute about 100 million copies of Government
publications per year through all Superintendent of Documents programs
(not including information made available online).  In FY 1996, total
revenues for these programs were $106.2 million, including $31.3 million
from the Salaries and Expenses Appropriation.
 
GPO Access
 
        The revolution in information technology has made access to
congressional and other Federal information through GPO more universal.
Our GPO Access online service, implemented pursuant to P.L. 103-40,
provides free access to more than 70 Federal databases developed through
GPO's electronic prepress systems, including the Congressional Record,
congressional bills and reports, House and Senate calendars, the U.S.
Code, and other publications.
 
        The most recent congressional databases we have made available are
the Congressional Pictorial Directory for the 105th Congress, the
Constitution Annotated, the House Ways and Means Committee "Green Book,"
the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee "Plum Book," college
debate and high school debate documents, and Jefferson's Manual and Rules
of the House of Representatives.  Products to be released in the near
future include House Appropriations Committee hearings (with text in ASCII
format and no graphics), Senate Appropriations Committee hearings (with
complete files in Portable Document Format, which replicates the official
printed product), other House and Senate committee hearings on a pilot
basis, the Senate Rules and Manual, and the Congressional Directory for
the 105th Congress.  We are piloting a system for providing effective
online access to congressional hearings that will assist House committees
in fulfilling the recent House rules change requiring online dissemination
of committee materials.
 
        Now available through GPO's home page (http://www.access.gpo.gov),
GPO Access--the first online service of its kind established by
Congress--allows users to locate electronic products available via the
Internet and to order Government publications online.  In addition to
congressional information, it includes a wide variety of important
executive and judicial information such as the Federal Register, the Code
of Federal Regulations, the Commerce Business Daily, and Supreme Court
opinions, as well as Government Information Locator Service (GILS) records
for a growing number of Federal agencies.  GPO Access is the only
Government online service providing access to a wide range of information
from all three branches of the Federal Government, and the only service
providing official access to this important Government information.
 
        Currently, between 2.5 million and 3 million documents are
retrieved from GPO Access every month.  During peak usage periods there
are about 15,000 GPO Access sessions per hour.  Some of the databases we
prepare for GPO Access, such as the Congressional Record and congressional
bills databases, are also downloaded by the Library of Congress for its
THOMAS information service, further expanding the availability of
congressional information.  GPO Access has drawn praise from a variety of
sources, including the library community (which gave GPO Access the 1995
James Madison Award), the Federal technology community, the legal
community, and others.  In December 1996, in a guest column in Roll Call,
representatives of the Congressional Accountability Project and the
Heritage Foundation together called GPO Access "an enormous success."
 
Transitioning the Federal Depository Library Program
 
        Last year, at the direction of the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees, we concluded a major study of how to convert the Federal
Depository Library Program (FDLP) to a predominately electronic basis.
The study involved a broad range of participants from both the Government
and the library and information communities.  We testified about it in
detail before this Subcommittee last year.  Among other things, the study
found strong support for the use of GPO's electronic systems as a vehicle
for accomplishing the transition of the FDLP to an electronic basis.
There is also a broad consensus for having a single entity in GPO's
Superintendent of Documents to coordinate library-related information
dissemination activities in the electronic era.